Naomi Berrie Diabetes Center At Columbia University

There is no other Diabetes Center that will provide the expert care and knowledge to treat type 1 diabetes whatever age from birth to adult. You know once you enter the doors the team is by far not only the top in the field in research but in education. No matter your financial situation, your care is of utmost importance. The skill and wisdom of Dr Goland and her staff has assisted our family and many others to lead the healthiest of lives with continuance ongoing support. No better place to go

The Doctors are ok. It is at least not a doctor mill like so many places. But the staff are horrible. They are rude. They give misleading info about insurance and screwed me. It is taking me 3 – 4 hours to deal with coverage after following their advice.

The support staff is useless, though the doctors are good. They seem to be consistently changing appointments on me after they have been made months in advance, and when their new times don’t work, my set appointment gets pushed out another several months. Lot’s of ‘someone will call you back’ and no one does. Seriously considering switching practices.

The front desk staff and a lady named Jennifer is absolutely useless and unresponsive. How do they hire such incapable people at such a great clinic. This place has been on a down hill spiral. I have called 6 times since Dr. Freeby has left and I keep getting told someone will call me back. No one ever call sme back and i keep being told Dr. Goland is going to assign me a Dr. this never happens. I wouldn’t waste your time going here as there us better information available on the internet.

My teenage son was a patient at NB when he was first diagnosed with type 1 diabetes, and he remained their patient for some weeks after his initial diagnosis. It was a bad fit for our family and my son was very unhappy with the program there (although the people as individuals were nice and we liked them personally).
My son is much happier now at another university based diabetes clinic. The main problem my son had was that NB required him to attend too many «classes» for things he could have learned quickly with a more personalized approach (or could have figured out himself). There was for example a «considering the pump» class he had to attend if he wanted to try a pump, «nutrition» classes, «newly diagnosed» class etc. ad nauseum. He had so much frustration with their required ‘classes’ and really, type 1 diabetes is burdensome enough, without your provider increasing the burden by making you attend «classes» that are paced inappropriately for some (perhaps many?) of the attendees. Sitting through their required programs interfered with play auditions, chorus rehearsals, and advanced math classes, and my son found the prospect of that most irritating (and rightly so).
During the early weeks after his diagnosis I also had a problem with them not responding very quickly when dose changes were needed. Their procedure was to have us fax in a log and then we had to wait for their call (which too often took a couple days: they never got back to us quickly even when my son was having erratic bg and significant lows). In the early days when the «honeymoon» kicked in, the dose changes were substantial and we really needed a few minutes of help by phone THEN and not lengthy classes scheduled throughout the following weeks and months (which seemed to be the program). In short, we felt help was not there when we needed it, and required courses were there when my son did not need it.
I was also displeased that they never told us my son had screened positive for celiac antibodies while in the associated hospital (when he was diagnosed). I don’t know when they planned to tell us, but we did finally get that information from the new provider after the new provider received a copy of the hospital record. The new provider immediately made the GI referral and the celiac diagnosis was subsequently confirmed. The gf diet has been easy enough and his blood sugar improvement has been substantial (much easier to manage).
I am sure they provide great care to many, and I know many patients and families are delighted with the care they get there. But they were not the best fit for our family, and we felt information transfer was too slow (as in celiac info and feedback on dose changes) while the demands for my son’s attendance at their programs (especially in the early weeks) was far too high and added to his sense of being burdened. We needed a more flexible and more individual approach, which we are happy to have found elsewhere.

The Naomie Berrie Diabetes Center provides the best patient care I have experienced in 26 years of having juvenile diabetes. The staff take the attitude that one should manage one’s diabetes to fit one’s life, and not vice versa. I have seen Dr. Golden, who is an excellent, compassionate physician — she is clear and direct with me, and explains everything carefully to make sure I understand. The center is available by phone or email for questions that do not require a visit; as the previous commenter noted, they will not call you to refill prescriptions or schedule appointments, you have to do this yourself. But I have never had a problem geting a prescription filled or an appointment scheduled when I call to make a request, and I have always found the front desk staff, and all the staff, to be professional and kind. They are current with latest medical developments and knowledge and are focused on enabling their patients to live well with diabetes — I can’t recommend anyone more highly.

The Naomie Berrie Diabetes Center at Columbia is a very good resource, and have helped me and many other people keep their diabetes in good control.
That said, their professionalism and the habits of their support staff are terrible. When my physician left the practice, the patients were asked to resume seeing their primary care doctors. There was no phone call to inform patients their MD was no longer available, nor was there any attempt to match patients with other endocrinologists on staff. Staff doesn’t contact patients for routine matters such as scheduled appointments or pharmacy refills. This is a busy practice and existing patients are steamrollered.